Hitch, Kids, Vikings and TV
September 09 2013

First things first: have you voted for Alasdair (author of Extreme Double Knitting) in the My Mountain design contest? Thank you, CPers!
It's been a pretty big month so far for CP! Our latest in the Fresh Designs series, Kids, was released last week, as was Hitch, a book inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch is the second CP book by Stephannie Tallent, whose gorgeous book California Revival Knits continues to impress colorwork, lace and cable fans with its intricate architecture-inspired patterns. Like the Fresh Designs series, Hitch is a multi-contributor book, featuring a host of ultra-talented designers. If you pre-order it now, you'll get a special bonus cowl pattern!
The main photoshoot for Hitch took place on a hot and steamy August day in a Chicago park with one of our favorite photographers, Nick Murway. (On that note, you really need to check out the photos on Kids, too -- our art director Elizabeth did them, and if you've ever taken any photos of children, you know it's not that easy!)
Shoot planning at Stephannie's in-laws' house
Trying to evoke the elegant menace of a stylish Hitchcock thriller in 99% humidity and similar temperatures is...well, tough. I think we hit the mark, though. The fabulous vintage clothing we paired with the knits came from Deering Vintage in Cleveland, Ohio, and the tweedy brown dress is a real Claire McCardell...for whom, in no small amount of synchronicity, the Claire M sweater in Fresh Designs Sweaters is named.
The middle dress is the McCardell, and the shawl is by our own Elizabeth Green Musselman
Speaking of elegance under heat and pressure, last Thursday CP authors Andi Smith (Big Foot Knits) and Kate Atherley (Beyond Knit & Purl, Knit Accessories) taped an episode of Knitting Daily TV for its next season featuring new host Vickie Howell. Both Kate and Andi will appear on the same sock-related episode. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream at Jeni's, aka Breakfast of Champions for TNNA Attendees.
And now...Vikings? No, we're not publishing a Viking knitting book (though give us time, you never know!) -- but we are announcing our new Cooperative Trade imprint for fiction and non-knitting titles. That's been an open secret for some time, really. Ben Vendetta, author of Wivenhoe Park, has been posting about his novel on Tumblr and Facebook for a month. The website is up.
So what's today's big secret reveal?
We are publishing Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown. *happy dance*
As knitters you may already be familiar with Larissa's work: two books, Knitalong and My Grandmother's Knitting, beautiful patterns, etc. What you don't know is that she's an amazingly talented novelist as well. Beautiful Wreck is speculative fiction, and more specifically a time-travel romance. (Talk about timing: just as the internet is obsessed with the casting choices for the TV version of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels!) If you liked the Outlander series, if you like strong women characters and a book that will suck you into its world from the very first page, Beautiful Wreck is for you.
Our first novel Wivenhoe Park, by Ben Vendetta, will be out in October, then Beautiful Wreck a little later in the year. We will be keeping most news about the new imprints' books on its own list with infrequent crossover on the main CP list, so please do join CP Trade's list or the Beautiful Wreck list for news as these and other non-knitting books are released.
Some of the musicians I idolized in the late 80s and early 90s then have been asking Ben and his music journalist/PR friends for advance reading copies of Wivenhoe Park, musicians who would have had me swooning from stage as a teenager (ok, they still would, actually). Those I'm keeping under wraps for the moment 'til I know we can quote them, but the last one I heard about had me leaping up and down, inserting liberal numbers of unladylike words in my excitement.
Set in the mid-80s, Wivenhoe Park chronicles the adventures of Drew, a rock 'n' roll-obsessed student with journalistic aspirations who moves to England on a whim to escape various demons, including a goth ex-girlfriend, who he can’t seem to shake out of his system...will Drew find peace, love and understanding or will it all burn down like cigarettes?
You'll find out this fall.
Thanks, as ever, for your continued support of what we're doing here at Cooperative Press.
One last thing: Knit Edge issue 4 will be out this month and we can't wait for you to see it!